Bill would give O.C. a veterans cemetery

Jan. 23, 2014

Updated Jan. 24, 2014 9:32 a.m.

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Retired Orange firefighter and a Marine Vietnam vet, Mark Wayland, salutes the flag at the beginning of the morning service for veterans without families at the Riverside National Cemetery in 2011. FILE: MICHAEL GOULDING, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A hill of flagless military graves have color added as volunteers place flags in honor of Memorial Day 2013. They were with Anaheim police Officer Brennan Leininger's group "A Flag For Every Hero," at Riverside National Cemetery. FILE: MINDY SCHAUER, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Peggy Kane of Fountain Valley, left, with a friend, brings flowers from her home garden to the grave of United States Marine Sgt. Jason Peto. Kane met Peto's mother when the Marine came home and told her that every time she is at the Riverside National Cemetery she would put flowers on the grave of her son. Peto died in Afghanistan in 2010. FILE: MICHAEL GOULDING, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Retired Orange firefighter and a Marine Vietnam vet, Mark Wayland, salutes the flag at the beginning of the morning service for veterans without families at the Riverside National Cemetery in 2011. FILE: MICHAEL GOULDING, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Orange County could become home to a veterans cemetery if a bill introduced by Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva passes through the legislature.

Assembly Bill 1453, introduced by Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, earlier this month, would direct the state’s Department of Veteran Affairs to build the cemetery, which would then be state owned and operated.

Honorably discharged veterans along with their spouses and children would be eligible for burial in the cemetery.

A location and funding still need to be determined, Quirk-Silva said.

Currently the only veterans cemetery run by the state is in Igo, nine miles west of Redding. A second state-run cemetery for veterans is being planned in Fort Ord on Monterey Bay and could open by January 2016.

There are nine federal cemeteries in California open to veterans, the closest in Riverside.

“The truth is that people in Orange County are probably underserved,” said Steve Jurgensen, who oversees the state’s veterans cemeteries. Previously, he spent 13 years as the director of the Riverside National Cemetery.

“We didn’t serve a lot of residents out of Orange County,” he said, “It’s just too far.”

Orange County is home to 117,000 veterans this year and will be have 112,000 in 2015, according to estimates from the state’s Department of Veterans Affairs.

Quirk-Silva said she was inspired to introduce the bill, in part, by a group of veterans, active military personnel and supporters behind an effort to have a cemetery built on 125 acres in the Great Park in Irvine. The land was once home to the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro.

“That’s really what propelled my interest,” Quirk-Silva said. “I think it is an exciting opportunity to be part of an initiative … The interest has been there.”

Bill Cook, 67, of Mission Viejo, a former Marine sergeant who served in Vietnam, is among the group that expressed desire to Irvine City Council in November for establishing a veterans cemetery at the former Marine base.

“When it was announced it was going to close, I thought this would be a great site for a cemetery,” Cook said of El Toro. “When we flew off to Vietnam … they bussed us up, put us on an airplane and flew us out of there. That (site) has got some heritage for us.”

Riverside is too far for many Orange County families to visit deceased loved ones, Cook said.

Jaime Arteaga, spokesman with the state Department of Veterans, said building a cemetery in Orange County would take a collaborative effort.

“You need to have the support of the local community, local veterans groups and local government,” Arteaga said. “This doesn’t move forward if you don’t have their support.”

Burial benefits provided to honorably discharged veterans are essentially the same whether interned in a state or federally owned cemetery, Arteaga said.

Veterans are entitled to a free burial which typically includes the casket, plot and services at the cemetery, he said.

“You’re building a national shrine, as much as you are a cemetery,” Jurgensen said. “It’s a shrine to veterans living and deceased.”

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